Are you using info@YOURDOMAIN.com? It might not be a good idea.

You see email addresses that begin with info@…com everywhere. You may use on on your site and at one time it made perfect sense. A potential client, looking for additional information about you studio, sends you an email info@YOURDOMAIN.com. You hope you will receive it so you can act on it.

Here’s where I see potential problem.

Spammers love taking YOURDOMAIN.com and just add info@ to the beginning, figuring every business has an info@ address. Email providers (Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, etc..) fight hard to prevent these spam emails from ever reaching your inbox. So you run the risk of never receiving it 🙁

Now if you are using info@YOURDOMAIN.com to send emails to your clients the same problem exists + you are potentially componding the problem (and looking like a spammer yourself) if you are sending emails to a large list.

How many times have you sent an email request to an impersonal info@ address and never received a reply back? Plenty I’m guessing. It can be frustrating to go through the effort and never get a reply. If it happens enough times you may decide not to bother… and decide to skip your request or maybe find another company to do business with.

Here are my suggestions

Use a Contact Us link that offers a form where a client can include their Name, Email and a text field where they can enter a question of comment.

If you publish and email address, make it personal so the person contacting you know who they are contacting. Your studio business is all about community and connections. I always use john@indoorcycleinstructor.com so people feel free to contact me directly. I always respond to every email I receive. It may not be more that a simple “Thanks Linda” but everyone gets a reply. I frequently get responses like “wow, I didn’t expect to get a reply!” That’s how you begin building rapport with new customers.

If you have a blog be sure to have “Send an email whenever someone comments?” set to yes and use your email address.